by Michael Mamas | Monday, October 14, 2013 | Vedic Technology |
The retreat ended yesterday. How can I convey it to you? Maybe we should have filmed a docudrama. Though that would, at best, give a mere glimpse.
It was fantastic… so powerful… so amazing. We should release the lecture series as a video set, though I do not know if that is feasible. The pujas were incredible. The five-hour havan moved heaven and earth… it defies description. During it, I had the thought, “This will unleash immediate and explosive purification.” And it did… tangible waves of purity radiating throughout the mountains.
Not only the ceremonies, not only the meditations, not only the lectures, not only the overwhelming enthusiasm of those visitors who did not even attend the course, but only came for an hour or a day… everything… the personal interactions, the children at play, the power of the temple altars, what it felt like to lie down to sleep at night, the crispness of the mornings, the stars in the still, quiet, motionless darkness of the night skies, the fall leaves, the palpable shakti permeating the air.
All I can say is that what we are doing is working. Forward! Forward! Always forward!
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Friday, September 13, 2013 | The Veda |
The underlying basis of existence is a field of pure abstraction… a field of no-thing-ness… pure is-ness. In its purest form, the Veda is infinitely abstract. Every verse of the Veda is an abstraction… a portal to all that is… to the entire Veda. To interpret or translate any verse is to reduce it down.
Similarly, the electron is not a charged point in space. It is a probability cloud that reaches out to infinity. To grab on to it is to reduce it to a point value, is to compromise it.
If you give a verse of the Veda to several scholars, each may interpret it quite differently. This speaks to the beauty of the Veda. Every verse is infinitely rich. It also speaks to the elusiveness of the Veda, i.e. the elusiveness of the laws of nature, of Mother Nature.
The Veda contains all knowledge, but to understand it, and to apply it to a specific situation, is far more elusive than most realize. There is nothing more subtle, nothing more delicate, nothing more abstract.
Everything is born out of no-thing… infinite silence… pure abstraction… the unified field.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Monday, September 2, 2013 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, Vedic Science |
There is so much to say about the following comment I received. Really, it is far too much to address in a blog, but I will do my best to say it in a nutshell here.
You can study the Veda (in fact, all of life) from different perspectives. One would be that you already know exactly what Lord Krishna means by fearlessness, Atman, controlling the five senses, Advaita, Abhaya hastha, etc. In so doing, you interpret His words on your own terms and from you own level of evolution. Another perspective would be that you cannot possibly know what he means until you have attained the highest level of consciousness. In fact, the primary purpose of studying the Veda, meditation, etc. is the facilitation of your evolution in that direction. In so doing, you open the door to advancing your understanding. This is why I say that your growth is not so much about learning new facts as it is about attaining a deeper understanding of the facts you already know. The facts below are lovely, provided they are reflected upon to see deeper than you currently can see. If you assume you can read Lord Krishna’s words and know what he means, you freeze it and thereby you freeze your own growth and evolution. See?
Perhaps the greatest calamity of spirituality, and all religions, is that people think they understand what is being offered by the Masters. They believe they understand it when they do not. As I am fond of saying, “When the Master speaks, it immediately ceases to be what the Master said and becomes what the listener heard.” If we are to bring out the Knowledge in its purity, we must remain steadfast, unwavering on this point. As I have also said, “An intellectual understanding of spirituality is a good first step, all too often mistaken for the goal.”
As an exercise, I invite you to reflect on the terms and concepts in the comment and see if you can open the door to deeper understandings of what each term may mean. As an aid to this, you may want to reread my blog, “Fear of Death,” which I posted a few days ago. I can help you to look deeper, but only if you are willing and open to doing so.
The comment follows:
I can’t resist sharing some thoughts about fear (bhaya). It was just yesterday morning I woke up contemplating on Abhaya meaning fearlessness. And I open the blog to find this topic. Lord Krishna talked a great deal about fearlessness (Abhayam) at the beginning of His discourse Gita when Arjuna gets disheartened by the fear of fighting the Mahabharata war against his own kith and kin and for the fear of losing them. Lord Krishna described fearlessness (abhayam) as the first quality among the twenty-six good qualities one should possess. Lord Krishna asserts that to understand spiritual knowledge, one should be fearless.
The Abhaya hastha (hand) of Hindu gods and goddesses (an open palm with fingers pointing upwards) is often misinterpreted as the blessing hand. When one begins to look inward (this can be achieved only through unwavering meditation), one would realize the atman (soul) is one with God. This oneness is called Advaita (no duality). You are God and God is you as atman. When one is considered enlightened when she/he is able to apply and practice advaita principle to all the living beings around them. Until such time, we are believed to be following dvaita (duality); we are different from each other. Hence we fear danger, harm, and threat of death from others.
Since it is believed that the soul is eternal, it has this knowledge of Advaita. So, one does not fear one’s own self. However, we perceive fear of bodily harm, losing people or belongings, or death from others around us. If there is no duality where is the source or cause for fear? Devotee Prahlad demonstrated fearlessness as he visualized Narayana in every life form.
From philosophical perspective, five fingers in abhaya hastha denote, controlling of five senses to experience oneness with God as denoted by the fingers pointing upward. In nutshell, the entire philosophy of Advaita is given to mankind through Abhaya hastha.
“When fear is associated with every sensory pleasure you experience, where is the happiness? Those who surrender to God will become fearless and detached and enjoy the ultimate bliss. Those who have realized God understand atma jnana and become fearless. Fearless people are not afraid of death also. Swami Vivekananda was known to be a fearless person.” – Referenced from Sree.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Tuesday, August 27, 2013 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, The Veda |
The following is a very beautiful comment to the “What is Reality?” blog and very true. I believe that the word, Hindu, was created by the British? It meant followers of Indu! This is just something I learned years ago and can not document it. Of course, there are many philosophies spinning around The Veda. Though different aspects of Veda are called philosophies, they are better thought of as ‘eternal principles’ as stated in the comment. Veda is nature. The mechanics of nature are understood through study of the Veda. The fundamental basis of nature as viewed through western science is the unified field. As in the comment below, it is Oneness, the principle of “advaitha”, non-duality.
I would add that the principle is not understood through study alone. It must be embodied. It must be experienced. This speaks of a level of Unity Consciousness. Not an attitude or belief system but a level of consciousness… enlightenment. Of course, to study it is of great value and facilitates the path to enlightenment… proper meditation also being highly important. Also the word ‘reality’ is often used loosely. I attempted to give some sense of the deeper meaning in the ‘What is Reality’ blog.
Sree, I enjoyed this comment very much. It would be a pleasure to meet you at Mount Soma some day.
Sree’s comment follows:
The word “Hinduism” and “Hindu Philosophy” are wrongly used by many millions in Bharath (India) and throughout the rest of the world.. There is no such word in ancient Indian scriptures. Hindu has no meaning and it does not belong to any of the Indian languages. First of all, Bharath has no religion (reunite) and there is a very good reason for that. We have eternal principles that one must follow. The most important one is “advaitha” or one-ness. In other words, there is no duality in this universe. Once this concept is understood, you understand the reality.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
by Michael Mamas | Wednesday, August 21, 2013 | Clarifying Confusion, Spiritual Evolution, The Veda |
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.” – Albert Einstein
This universe is a reality continuum… an infinite number of simultaneously valid yet contradictory realities. On one level, in one reality, you and I are one… everything is the unified field. In the physical reality, you and I are separate. People cling to one reality or another and call it truth. Divergent branches of Hinduism insist they are right and the opposing Hindu philosophy is wrong.
The enlightened cling to nothing. They align with the reality that best serves the moment. They spontaneous live life in harmony with the reality continuum. They live in freedom. Their life is infinitely creative. What they align with is not based upon what any teacher told them or anything they have been indoctrinated into. They use the philosophies of different realities, yet the philosophies do not use them. They express themselves in terms of popular world views to be understood more easily, but see beyond those views at the same time. They may use quotes and philosophies of famous people to give expression to what they experience, but are not limited by any philosophy, world view, or belief system. An infinite number of world views emerge from deep within them from moment to moment as best serves the situation. They are not enslaved by any world view.
They see clearly. They see what is. They place little value on what they are told should be. It is called spiritual emancipation for a reason. They are free of indoctrination… free of samskaras… free of limitation…. unbounded… infinitely creative from moment to moment. The enlightened live in harmony with nature. Their nature and Mother Nature are one. Nature then determines the philosophy they align with from moment to moment.
If you are to comprehend what is being said here, you must strive to do so. Yet it is quite understandable that you may strive to refute it in order to keep your current understanding, your current knowledge, your current belief system in tact. However, if you do that, your resistance will likely be enough to prevent you from understanding what is being said here. You may try to refute this as another belief system. You may claim you already understand it but just disagree. You may insist that it just does not interest you, or you do not need to know it. You may search for a way to prove it wrong before you really even comprehend it. I assure you it is a profound and most important thing to comprehend. Once comprehended, you will realize that it is the essence of what the tradition of enlightened master, the rishis , were saying. If it were not just that subtle and elusive, everyone would have been enlightened long ago. Also remember, the spiritual path is a long one. A lifetime of study is a very short time. The spiritual path is not measured in years or decades. It is measured in lifetimes.
The knowledge of Veda is sometimes thought of as a secret knowledge. However, it is not a secret because it is hidden away. It is secret because even after reading, studying and listening, it remains a secret to the student. It is as elusive as the mystery of life and existence itself, for that is exactly what it is about.
The genuine spiritual Guru uses philosophies to lead the student to a place that lies beyond the grasp of all philosophies. This level of teaching is extraordinarily rare and oh so very precious.
© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.
